Safaricom granted license to operate M-PESA in Ethiopia as the Group Revenue Hits KES 310.9 billion in FY23
Date: 2023-05-11
Chief Executive Officer of
Safaricom PLC, Peter Ndegwa has announced that Safaricom Telecommunications
Ethiopia has officially been granted the license to operate mobile money
services in Ethiopia. The licence, came seven months after the commercial
launch of GSM services.
Speaking at the Full Year 2022/2023 results event held on Thursday in Nairobi, Mr. Ndegwa is optimistic that the M-PESA license will open the country to the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech, and the world’s first mobile money transfer system.
Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom PLC CEO said: “We are excited that this is a great milestone following our entry into Ethiopia. This positions us to provide essential financial services to the Ethiopian population. We are looking forward to launching and rolling out the service over the next few months.
M-PESA empowers over 30 million customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phones. M-PESA catalysed financial inclusion in Kenya to 84% from a low of 26.7% in 2006 according to the 2021 FinAccess Survey and generated over KES 117.2 billion ($886 million) in revenue in FY23.
He added: “Since the commercial launch in October, the brand is visible, deeply rooted in the Ethiopia and quickly becoming in every sense fabric of the society. The potential for Ethiopia is immense and we look forward to the future with optimism and excitement.”
In the period under review, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia added close to 3 million customers and built a distributor network of over 114 outlets, delivered an award-winning premium quality network in 22 cities and regions; with close to 1300 network sites, and over 900 staff, 81% of whom are Ethiopians.
Safaricom increased its Group Service Revenue by 5.2% to KES 295.7 billion while the Group net income excluding minority interest declined by 10.6% attributable to expected start-up costs and investment in rolling out operations in Ethiopia within the year. Voice service revenue declined by 2.6% to KES 81.1 billion; mobile data revenue grew by 11.4% to KES 54.0 billion, while M-PESA revenue grew by 8.8% to KES 117.2 billion.
By: Nana Appiah Acquaye
